Creative Woodworks & crafts 2005-09, страница 23

planning and advice, you can cut this. That being said, however, don't think this piece is going to cut out like a simple puzzle. It will take an investment of both time and patience, and it will force you to use your best scrolling techniques. The completed cutting will be a piece that will make any scroller proud! The pattern ilself has a Iiltle more than 700 cuts and took approximately 15 hours for me to complete. Confidence is the most important thing a scroller needs in order to attempt a detailed pattern such as this. Believe you can do it and you can.

I make my living with my saw, selling framed wall art, so a lot of the things I do are designed to achieve acceptable qualify at maximum speed. If you hove a Iried and true method that works for you, by all means stick with it. The tips I share in this article are ones that work for me.

I prefer using spiral blades on patterns that are this detailed, but straight blades can be used too. I prefer Baltic birch for my cuttings, but any good quality ply will work well for this pattern. Use at least two pieces of 1/4"-thick ply, bul if you are going to use 1 /8^,! thick Bcltic birch for this cutting, stack a minimum of three pieces, because many of the areas of this pattern can use that extra support. The extra thickness will also help take some of the aggressiveness out of the spiral blades, making them easier to control.

Now that we have all that out of the way. let's begin our trip... ALL ABOARD!

INSTRUCTIONS

After ripping the wood down to size, I prefer to sand if before cutting. Once cut. a piece like this is VERY fragile, and you will not be able to sand it aggressively. As previously mentioned, using a stack of a few sheets will dramat ically improve your odds of making if all the way to completion of this project. Stacking the wood tightly will also dramatically reduce the fuzzies that a spiral will inevitably leave behind. After stacking your wood with Ihe ends flush and all the front sides facing up, temporarily secure one side with a few large spring clamps. I like to use three clamps for a cutting of this size, with one on each corner and one in the middle. Place the clamps far enough into the wood so you can run tape along the edges without having to remove the clamps. Blue painter's tape is easy to see on the wood and releases fairly easily. However, if

you pre-finish your wood, you will have an incredibly difficult time removing this kind of tape; try using purple painter's tape instead. After you run the tape along the edge, pull it snugly around to the top of the wood and, while keeping pressure on it, fold if over to the back. Once you have secured the first side, remove the clamps and continue around the wood. If you want fo check the stack to be sure it is tight, finish all four sides and squeeze the stack right on the edge between your fingers. If wrinkles appear in the tape, then the stack is still loose. I know it sounds like a lot of extra work, but I assur e you the time you save in removing those fuzzies will make it well worth the effort. Unfortunately, there is no technique I know of that will minimize them on the back of the bottom sheet.

Let's adhere the pattern and get down to the nitty gritty of cutting this piece. Apply a HEAVY coat of spray adhesive. (We will deal with removal later.) This cutting has lots of very thin oreas and long floating pieces. If you don't use enough glue, they will lift, and you will be left trying to guess where to end your cut.

Take a good look at the pattern before heading to the drill press, taking note of the long cuts in the bottom as well as the way cutting the roof af the shed will effect the overall strength of the wood. Try to plan your cutting in advance. 1 suggest starting with the smokestack on the front of the train and cutting all of the train first, then moving to the tracks at the bottom, finishing with the shed. This piece will lose A LOT of strength as you cut, so keep that in mind and drili accordingly. Another consideration before you drill is that several of the connections in this piece are VERY thin and the cuts are very close together. You hove to be sure your drill bit is perpendicular to the wood, and be extremely precise when you drill. I cut this with a 2/0 Flying Dutchman spiral and used a No. 68 bit to drill my holes. Bits that small, while wonderful for this kind of detail, will often cause the wood to "splinter" on the bottom, making blade changes all but impossible. To eliminate this problem, run the bit down in each hole a second time to cut the back clean.

Remember that this pattern, like any olher, is simply a guide, not a rule book. Feel free to make any changes you want. You may decide to thicken some of the connections or to even totally ignore some of the cuts. Do whatever you feel is possible with your talent and experience. The condition and quality of your saw could also effect the cutting; a saw with a lot of "wobble" in the blade may cause you some difficulties.

Blade tension preferences are probably as varied as approaches to cutting a pattern. I personally like a setting of about 4-117 on my DeWalt. A setting that high will cause the blade to react with a very slight amount of movement of the wood. There are a few areas of the train, most notably the wheels, where you might want to think about trying a different cutting technique, such as changing direction. To do this, start cuts at the place where you decided fo drill. Cut until you reach a point that will weaken the long piece that hangs back into the waste area. Once there, stop cutting around the outside and cut around the hanger, ensuring it doesn't break off. Sometimes that means cutting all the wcy across the waste area to reach a hanger, and then going back and resuming the outside of the cut. This technique has helped me to save many cuttings from the firewood pile, and I hope it will help you as well.

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